Keep Breathing
by stardust123987
Summary: When she's left for dead, she almost gave up. But when a savior comes and gives her a new meaning to the word family, she has all she needs to survive. But is surviving enough? Is there something more that her savior can give her besides a safe haven? Starts in Season 2
1. Chapter 1

Her eyelids opened slowly, taking in the dim sunlight that crept through the dusty curtains. She quickly forced her lids shut upon the realization that her nightmare was in fact her reality. Keeping her eyes closed she attempted to move and stretch out the cramps that she now had over her entire body. Starting slowly with her arms, making sure not to jostle her hands too much as the ropes wrapped around her wrists had already cut into her skin and too much movement and struggle would only make the pain jolt back to her arms. Rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck, she attempted to adjust her spot on the floor with the help of her arms, but was immediately met with sharp pains in her wrists making her stop her feeble attempt to move. Bending and stretching her legs was not difficult as long as she didn't roll her ankles or attempt to stand. Not only were the ropes on her wrists too tight, but the ones around her ankles were excruciating. They kept her tied to the large radiator that was to her right. In her attempts to move the radiator in the room to the doorway to find a way out, she was met with pains in ankles only to be accented by the ropes cutting into her wrists. And the knots that tied her up and to the metal were so intricate and strong that after a day and a half of attempting to pick them loose, all she had to show for it was bloodied and sore fingers.

Three days. Three days she had been here. At least, that is what she thought. Three days stuck in this abandoned room tied to a radiator that had to weigh at least as much as she did and nothing but a now empty bottle of water. Three days. A human could survive on nothing but water for three days. But her water ran out the previous evening. Rationing could only take her so far, and with nothing to eat, water was her only friend, and her friend ran out after just over two days.

Lolling her head back on her shoulders, making contact with the wall, she made a small thud. Realizing that she was going to die, she hit her head again against the wall. Thud. How could she have been so stupid to think he would let her go. Thud. Why couldn't she have been just a bit faster. Thud. She could have ran a little longer and then he would never have caught her. Thud. After the fifth rap of her head on the wall, she stopped, hearing wood creak below in the body of the house. She knew that the noise was no ways caused by her. Someone else, something else, was in the house with her now.

How could she have been so naive; it was a miracle that an infected hadn't found her yet. And there she was, calling out to whatever mindless creature was there looking for its next meal that she was upstairs. She quickly glanced around the blank room of wooden walls, trying to find something that she could defend herself, knowing that even if there was anything, she would have seen it in the previous days alone. And nothing was in her reach besides the oversized radiator.

She heard slow footsteps up the stairs. The infected must not know what room she was in because it was moving at a painfully slow pace. The anticipation of the door opening to finally meet her end was almost worse than succumbing slowly to her death like she thought she would do. The footsteps stopped, or at least became quiet as they finished the stair case journey. She wasn't sure how many rooms there were, but she knew she would only be lucky for a few more minutes at most while the rest of the floor was scavenged for blood. And being the only warm meal around, she knew it would find her sooner rather than later.

She could faintly hear a footstep or a small creak outside of her room, but could not discern where it was coming from. Finally, she saw a shadow fill up the small gap of light coming from the bottom of the door. Bringing her knees to her chest and her bound hands around her legs, she cowered as small as she could against the radiator as the door was slowly pushed open.

Her eyes trained on the door to see how fate would kill her. But instead of seeing cold unseeing eyes and a snapping jaw with bloodlust, she was met with clear blue eyes and a scowl.

Not knowing what to do, she continued to be still, staring at the man before her. As her body was still as a statue, her eyes were not and she immediately saw that it wasn't just a man in the door, but a man with a large crossbow pointed at her. Cowering down further into herself and not knowing what to do, she resumed eye contact with the man.

His eyes squinted at her as if he needed to discern if she was really there. His eyes met wide and fearful hazel eyes looking from his weapon to his face repeatedly. Realizing that she was no immediate threat, and decidedly not a walker, he lowered his crossbow.

Realizing that the man wasn't going to shoot her, or at least not yet, the woman attempted to shrink back even further into herself. If he wasn't going to kill her, she could only imagine what he was planning on doing to her.

"Please," she rasped. "Please..."

What she was asking for she didn't know. She couldn't form a sentence, let alone get a few words out without her parched throat grinding against itself.

"Who are ya? Whatcha doing here?" The man barked. "You bit? That why you here?"

"N-no... I'm n-not infected." she stuttered out, gulping any saliva in her mouth to try and be more coherent. "D-did... did he..."

"Did who what? You gotta group? That who "he" is?" The man asked, cutting off her question.

"No. No group." she said firmly. Attempting to regain any composure that she might have, she continued her previous question. "The man that left me here. Did-Did he send you?"

As she waited for an answer, the man seemed to mull over the question as if he didn't know if he was sent or not. Squinting down at her as if sizing her up he answered.

"Ain't nobody that sent me here." He sneered as though following someones directions even in theory wasn't something that he would do. "I found this house tracking a little girl. You seen her? 'Bout yay high." He asked quickly holding his hand about mid torso.

"No. I haven't seen or heard anyone. Sorry." She answered truthfully. "Is she your daughter?"

The man scoffed, "She aint my kid."

The woman didn't know what to say to that so she stayed silent not wanting to anger the man or irrigate him any more than he already seemed.

"So you aint gotta group, but you said someone left you here. Who was he? He tie you up?" the man asked quickly.

"Um, yea, no group." She replied. "I... He... I don't know who he was. He found me in the woods and chased after me. Then left me here saying he'd bring back others." She looked at the ground, not able to keep eye contact with the man. She was ashamed at her inability to get out of the ropes, her inability to get away from the man in the woods, and now she was even more ashamed that she was telling it to a complete stranger that was likely going to kill her.

"How long you been up here?" The man asked in a softer voice. His crossbow now hanging lumpy at his side after realizing that she couldn't be a threat to him.

"Three days I think." She answered, "I ran out of water yesterday, but I think it's only been three nights here." After answering she began to question if it was really only three days she was locked up there. With no one and nothing with her, time seemed to feel excruciatingly long.

The man seemed to think over what she said before reaching out with his right hand to his belt. Seeing this action made the girl flinch. He quickly snarled and quickly dispatched a small canteen from his belt and tossed it over to her. The canteen rolled to her bare feet and she watched until it slowed completely, stopping while touching her left foot.

"Drink it. I'm sure ya need it." he said simply.

She eyed the canteen, not knowing if it was a trick or if he was actually helping her.

"It aint poison, just drink it." He stated while adjusting his stance in the doorway to balance on his right hip.

Whether it was him seeming to relax and not looking as menacing as before, or if it was her extreme thirst, she opened the canteen and quickly gulped a few large mouthfuls of heavenly water. She paused and looked over at the man regarding her. Slowly, she took the cap and twisted it back to the bottle top.

"Thank you," she said quietly. About to roll what was left of the water back, the man quickly made her movements stop by entering the room completely and walking within three feet of her and squatting down.

Feeling like an animal backed into a cage, the woman quickly let go of the canteen, letting it fall and roll near the man's feet, while she brought her hands back up to her body in a defensive stance.

The man stared her in the eyes and in doing so she felt like he was looking into her soul. His hard stare and deep blue eyes questioning her. "So ya got no group. No supplies. This aint some trick."

At hearing that he thought she was playing a game of some sort, she quickly got defensive and her anger started to rise. "You think _this_ is a trick?" She whispered harshly while raising her torn wrists to the man. "You think I'd do this to myself? No. I'm alone. My supplies are still at my tree, but no group. At least not for a while."

He regarded her with his eyes squinting again as if he had an internal lie detector and was processing what she said. He blinked, and his eyes seemed clear as if he had made up his mind about what she said. "Hmmp," he grunted while reaching to his belt for what she quickly realized was a large hunting knife.

Seeing this, her eyes became wide and she began scooting back into the wall even though there was no where to go.

"Stop yer moving if you want those damn ropes off." He scolded while reaching his free hand toward her.

She eyed him warily and slowly reached her hands out to him. He took her arms much more delicately than she was expecting and looked at the knots for a half a second deciding where to cut them. "Hold still." He reminded her as he slowing wedged the knife between her swollen and torn left wrist and the loaded rope. With a small flick of his wrist, her left hand was free of confinement and she was able to loosen the other knots and free her right hand as well. As she rubbed her wrists in an attempt to relive them from pain, he quickly grabbed her ankle and swung her toward him, doing the same as he did with her wrists. He cut one ankle free, then the other as it seemed it was quicker than her trying to undo the rest of the know herself.

"Thank you," she whispered. The man just nodded and then stood up and took a few steps back.

"You'll come with me back to camp." He started. The woman's eyes got big and she began to protest, not willing to partake in another nightmare like she had just done. "It's a good camp, girl. Women, families, a kid. Safe on a farm with water and food. Yer too weak to be out there now. Don't argue."

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to think of a retort, but he was right. She wouldn't make it a night without more water and some semblance of food. And if he was going to rape her or do anything else, he wouldn't have untied her. So she slowly nodded at the man tried to get up.

She immediately fell hard on her knees after getting light headed and seeing spots after getting up.

"Jesus Christ, yer worse off than I thought. Finish that water there and gimmie yer hand." The man said quickly as if annoyed at her.

Scowling up at him, she took the canteen that was a foot away from her now and gulped the last bit down. Then looking up at him, she stuck out her right arm so that he could help her to her feet. He nodded to her as she came to her full height, swaying a little, but righting herself with added pressure to the man's arm keeping her up.

"Ya good?" he asked.

She nodded again quickly, gaining her balance back and releasing his hand from her own.

"Okay then, we'll head out and make way back to camp before it gets dark." He claimed quickly while leaving her in the room and heading down the stairs.

Following after as quickly as she could, she made her way down the stairs, abet slower than her new companion and with the help of the railing. As she reached the main level, she looked up, proud of her small accomplishment of having gone down by herself, only to be met with a hard look.

"You got shoes somewhere?" He questioned looking down at her bare feet.

Coor rising to her face she put her head down. "No, he took those. Said I couldn't run if I had no shoes." she said meekly.

"Jesus," the man muttered to himself. "Alright then, first walker we come across is gonna be yer size, until then, we'll go slow. Ya follow my footsteps. Ground isn't too hard, so ya should be fine."

She could only nod in agreement as she didn't have any other ideas.

They began to make their way out of the house, he was constantly looking around, checking their surroundings, while she stared at the ground, not wanting to walk on sharp rocks or any sticks, and not wanting to look up quickly or else she would get light headed.

As they made their way back into the thicker part of the woods and leaving the cabin behind, she began to see black spots again and leaned again a tree.

As if sensing her stopping, the man turned around and walked back. "Ya okay?" he asked with what actually seemed like slight concern in his voice.

She numbly nodded her head, "I'll be fine, just a little dizzy. I'll be okay though." She trailed off, her voice getting weaker by the word.

"Naw ya aint, ya can't even walk 20 feet without becoming walker bait." He spit out as he came up to her side and quickly put his crossbow against the tree and held her shoulder and she started to sway. "Can't have you falling down, and we can't keep stopping if you get dizzy. C'mere." He motioned to himself as she looked him in the eye. "I gotta carry ya if we're gonna make it back tonight."

Time began to spin as did the man in front of her so she simply nodded in agreement and proceeded to go limp in his arms, not having the strength to stay up on her own.

"Jesus Christ, give me a goddamn warning." he mumbled as he grabbed her and swung her into his arms. "Ya better hope we don't come across any walkers now, I aint gonna be able to hold you and shoot 'em."

"Hmmmm." Was all he got in response from the now almost unconscious figure in his arms. She began mumbling something again, but he could understand what she was trying to say.

"Gotta speak up, girl. Cant understand a goddamn word yer saying'."

"Your name..." She said weakly. "I don't... I don't know, your name."

"Daryl. My name's Daryl." he replied, not sure if she even heard him. Rolling his eyes as he adjusted her and started walking back to his camp at the farm, he heard her faintly.

"Mmm, nice to meet you..." She cooed softly. "I'm Claire." She drifted off soundly after saying her name, her head coming to rest on Daryl's shoulder.

Daryl just scoffed at her lack of energy and continued on walking. "Yea, nice to meet you too."


	2. Chapter 2

Trudging through the forest, Daryl adjusted the girl in his arms attempting to get her in a better position. Her head rested against his chest while his arms cradled her body against him. He was not happy about having to carry the girl as it meant that his crossbow and any sort of defense against a walker was over his shoulder or on his belt. But he figured he could drop the girl on the dry ground and quickly reach for his weapon if they came across any issues.

As quietly as he could, the hunter continued on toward where he knew the farm to be. He had been carrying the girl for just about an hour and although he knew she hadn't eaten anything or had much to drink in the past few days, after an hour of carrying the dead weight, it felt like she weighed a good deal more than she looked.

Looking down on the woman in his arms, Daryl guessed that she couldn't be much older than Glenn. Even asleep against his chest, he could still make out her face. Although covered in dirt and sweat, with her eyes closed, he could see no wrinkles around her eyes showing age and her face had a much younger look when she was unconscious compared to the girl that he had seen scared shitless in the room of the house.

Attempting to stop staring at the woman in his arms, Daryl righted himself, telling himself that he didn't care how old she was or what happened to her. He just knew that deep down, he couldn't let her stay tied up in that house to die. No. Even if he wasn't looking for _her,_ he still found someone that needed his help. Now he just needed to find Sophia too. Hell, if he can find some hopeless woman tied up to a radiator in the middle of the woods, he could sure as hell find a girl that would be looking for someone in his group too.

Coming up to a small creek in the woods, Daryl decided to take a small break. Not that he couldn't keep walking, it was probably less than an hour left until the farm, but his arms might not make it that long.

Not wanting to wake the girl, Daryl lowered her to the base of a large tree and propped her up so that he could go splash some water in his face and shake out his arms.

Walking towards the creek, he crouched down and stuck his hands into the water, closing his eyes an enjoying the somewhat cool water run through his fingers. As his eyes closed fully, he heard a snap of a twig and then rustling to his left. Knowing that the unconscious woman could not have gotten up silently and to the other side of the creek without him seeing, his eyes snapped open and he slowly raised his crossbow and looked across the creek to his left and saw the source of the noise.

A walker about 10 yards away was slowly making its way toward Daryl. Snapping its jaws, its moans slowly reached Daryl's ears as he stood himself up and started over to where the walker was not wanting to take a chance with a bolt missing.

Once he was about 10 feet from the walker, a young man with dirty and torn athletic gear on, he let the bolt fly and impaled the dead through the left eye. The body fell immediately and as he reached down to retrieve the bolt, he heard a small grunt and turned just in time to see the woman, no longer unconscious, with a large rock raised above her head coming down just inches from Daryl's face.

"Fuck!" he yelled taking a step backwards and raising the crossbow to target the woman.

As he yelled, he also saw that while he rock was very close to hitting him, her swing of her arms followed through connecting the rock with the head of another walker that was no less than 2 feet from where Daryl had been.

After the girl's, first swing with the rock over her shoulder made contact with the side of the second walker's head, she quickly raised the rock again to her right shoulder and swung her arms to the fallen walker and smashed it's skull, effectively ending the walker's 'life.' Falling to her knees on top of the dead walker, the rock fell from her hands and her head hung down, her chin touching her chest as if she was ashamed of what she had done.

Breathing hard, she looked over to Daryl, a small light in her eyes that hadn't been there earlier when Daryl first found her. "Sorry about not warning you." she breathed as though out of breath. "You seemed to be focused on that guy so I figured I could help with this one."

She smirked a bit, and through her dirt streaked face, Daryl saw that the girl wasn't ashamed of killing the walker, but she seemed pleased with herself, just very exhausted from the amount of effort it took her.

"Ain't no problem." Daryl said gruffly, not wanting to thank the strange girl for possibly saving his life. Walking up to the walker that he killed, he bent down and started grabbing the dead man's feet. "What size shoe are ya?"

The woman regarded him with a questioning interested and replied, "a nine," just in time to see the first shoe flying at her chest.

"Well I don't know what size he was, but that's what size ya are now."

Smiling at the shoe in her hand, she quickly sat down and reached to put the show on her left foot. Rolling up her tattered jeans just enough to get the shoe on comfortably, she tied the laces and wriggled her toes, realizing that the shoes were at least 2 sizes too big. But seeing that the walker she had killed didn't even have shoes on made her realize that this wasn't the time to be picky.

Daryl, having gotten the other shoe off of the man walked over to the woman and dropped it at her feet. "Get them on quick and then we can go. Unless you need me ta carry ya again?"

"Oh no, I don't know what happened back there. I was just a bit dizzy. I think I'm just tired. But I'll be fine." She replied quickly. Rolling up her other pant leg quickly to put on the other shoe. "I'll just get this on and we can go."

Daryl just grunted in return scanning the wooded area around them to make sure that there were no more walkers in the vicinity.

Both shoes on her feet, the dirt covered girl looked up and gave an exhausted smile to Daryl. "Ready when you are."

Nodding quickly, Daryl started the hike back up to the farm, not wanting to spend any more time in the woods today. The girl followed but not as quickly as Daryl was walking. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that while she was now conscious, she was still very tired and was stumbling on her feet. Slowing down to her pace, he silently tucked his arm around her waist and supported some of her weight.

"Really, you don't need to do this, I can walk on my own." she started to say.

"Ya might be walking but it that pace ain't gonna get us to camp before sun down." he confronted.

The girl just nodded and leant in to Daryl's body a bit more relinquishing her fight to be independent.

The pair walked for another hour or so in and in that time Daryl, while on constant alert for walkers or any animals that he could hunt for dinner, also took the time to look at the girl on his left.

When he first came across her, he didn't look at her features, just saw that she was alive, not a walker. But walking in silence minus the occasional labored breath his new companion, he noticed that beneath the grime on her face and skin, she seemed younger than he originally thought. Judging by the lines near her eyes when she would squint to the sun, if he had to guess she couldn't be over 25.

Along with her new athletic shoes, she wore torn up jeans that were dirtier than what even Daryl was wearing, plus a simple long sleeved shirt that looked like it used to be black, but was not a faded grey with small tears all over. Her dirt stained skin seemed to be pale beneath the grime and he could see that her dark hair was a natural brown, but covered in grease and dirt from who knows what he wasn't sure if it was dark or light.

As Daryl sized up the woman, she was only focused on getting one foot in front of the other. With a promise of a farm with people that had supplies and didn't seem to want to harm her if Daryl was any indication, she just wanted to get there as fast as possible.

After their journey neared its end, Daryl quickly informed her that they were approaching the farm and to just let him talk with his people.

"Okay, of course," the girl agreed, feeling Daryl pull away from her body and step ahead of her.

After no more than 15 feet, the came to a clearing and they could both see fences and an RV close with a farm house a few hundred yards past.

Making their way towards the camp, the few people that were doing chores or on watch quickly saw that Daryl was not alone.

Sensing the confusion and fear coming from the unknown people, the woman picked up her pace to be closer to Daryl. Not wanting to cause a commotion she kept her eyes to Daryl's back, only sneaking quick glances to the new faces that were making their way toward the pair.

"Daryl, who's this?" A man with a tan button up shirt asked, approaching them first and angling himself to be between his group and the girl.

"Found her in the woods. Someone tied her up in a house out there. Said she ain't got a group." Daryl began.

"That right miss?" The man asked. "You were -" the man paused. "I'm sorry, what's your name?"

Slowly raising her head up to look at the leader she slowly took a step out from behind Daryl and spoke. "Claire. My name is Claire."

The leader just nodded. "Okay Claire, well I'm Rick, and this is our group. But before we go any further I need to you to swear that you don't have a group and you're not leading anyone here. Can you swear that?"

"Yes," she said quickly. "Yes, I swear, it was just me. It's just been me for a long time." she said softly.

"Okay, well, why don't we get you something to eat and see if we have anything for those wrists of yours, they look a little sore."

Pulling at her sleeves to hide her wrists, Claire just nodded and gave a small smile. "That would be very nice, thank you."


	3. Chapter 3

Taking Rick's lead, Claire slowly followed behind him, looking over her shoulder to see that Daryl was also walking with them toward the camp.

"Okay Claire, we'll make sure to introduce you to everyone once we get you looked over." Rick started. "Herschel owns this farm here and is looking after my son. He should be able to check your wounds and get you cleaned up."

Claire nodded, noticing that as they got closer to the farmhouse, they were attracting more stares. Most of the people she could see started to walk over while two women, a blonde and brunette, near the RV stayed put. As a handful of the people got closer, Claire was able to see there was an African American man with a quizzical but interested look making his way to them as well as a young Asian man with a large smile on his face. But what made Claire stop walking behind Rick upon seeing a taller man with a frown on his face making his way over very quickly with one of his hands raised pointing a finger at her.

"Who the hell is this?" he demanded.

Claire avoided eye contact with the crazed looking man and did her best to get Rick between her and him.

Rick started, "This is Claire, Shane. She was tied up and lost in the wo-"

"I wasn't lost." Claire said from behind Rick just loudly enough to be heard.

Rick turned and looked at Claire. Deciding to stay quiet, Claire didn't say anything further, letting Rick continue.

"Claire was tied up in the woods in a house that Daryl found while he was looking for 're gonna see if Herschel will take a look at her and let her get cleaned up."

Shane didn't respond verbally, just nodding his head as he looked Claire up and down.

Not knowing what to do and not wanting to look at the leering man, Claire looked at her hands and began picking her already bitten down finger nails.

"Jesus, if ya'll are done, let the girl get some damn food and wash up." Daryl said, breaking the short silence while walking forward between Shane and Claire, nodding to the girl to continue with Rick.

Rick followed after Daryl leaving Claire to make the quick decision to either follow the two or stay and have a staring contest with Shane. She opted for walking to the house.

As she tried to pick up her pace, she stumbled and fell on her knees, a combination of exhaustion, lack of food and water, and big shoes making her tumble.

As she steadied herself to get up she felt a strong, but not hurting, hand grab her upper arm and lift her up. Daryl did not let go of her arm as he led her the rest of the way to the house.

As they came across the doorway with Rick holding the door open, an older gentleman who looked very tired and forlorn came into the entry way.

"And who is this?" he asked.

Before Daryl or Rick could say anything, Claire spoke up, "I'm Claire, sir. I uh... I was in the woods and um..." she slowly lost her thought and voice as tried to voice her story to the old man. "Daryl, he... Well, he fou-"

"Some jackass tied her up in the old house north of ya in the woods and left her fer dead. Found 'er this afternoon and we figured ya might be able to look at her arms and make sure she's okay." Daryl finished.

The man didn't say anything, just nodded and turned to the hallway. "Maggie?"

As he yelled down the hall, a young woman with shorter brown hair came down the hall. "Yes, daddy?"

"Our guests have found this young woman, Claire, and she's going to need to be cleaned up. Can you help her upstairs to the shower and then let me know when she's done? I'll take a look at her wrists and anything else that needs to be tended." he stated, no longer looking at the others, just his daughter.

"Yes, daddy, I'll get her up there now." Maggie answered as her father nodded and then passed her to walk down the hallway down a corner where Claire could no longer see him.

Rick leaned into Claire and whispered, "He just lost a good friend, a supply run went bad and the funeral was just a bit ago."

Claire's eyes went back to the hallway, understanding why the owner of the house had been so distant.

"Um, if you wanna follow me I can help you get cleaned up a bit? Shower might not be real hot, but it gets warm and you can wash yourself up." Maggie said to Claire.

Looking at Rick and then at Daryl who still hadn't left her side or her arm. Daryl nodded and motioned upstairs as he let his arm drop to his side.

"We'll just get her cleaned up and then have daddy look at her. She'll be right as rain in a little bit." Maggie told them as she ascended the stairs.

"Come on back to our camp near the R.V. when you're done, and we can get you something eat too," Rick told her as she took her first step to the stairs.

Nodding Claire said, "I will. And thank you. For all of this. Both of you." Making sure to look her true rescuer in the eyes. "I would've died out there if not for you."

Both of the men nodded and then walked outside closing the front door behind them.

As the girls got to the second floor, Maggie turned and looked at Claire with big eyes, "I'm sorry! I didn't even introduce myself. I'm Maggie, Herschel's my father if you didn't realize it." Sticking out her hand with a smile on her face.

Claire smiled softly and said, "I'm Claire, it's nice to meet you." Shaking Maggie's firm grip with a weak movement.

"Okay, let's get you showered and clean and then daddy can look at your cuts. Is it just your wrists or..." Maggie asked as she trailed off breaking eye contact.

"No!"Claire stated. "No, just my wrists, nothing like that." Claire assured her. "Nothing happened, just rope on my wrists and sore feet from being barefoot."

Maggie looked quizzically at Claire's tennis shoes and back to Claire with one brow up.

Claire laughed quietly, "These aren't mine, Daryl had found them on one of the dead in the woods for me."

Maggie just smiled and laughed, well that's good, 'cause I was about to say if you had that big of feet, you'd have to be a clown."

The girls shared a small laugh as Maggie continued their small trek to the bathroom where she showed Claire a set of towels and soaps that she could use.

"I'll dig around my closet and my sister's and see if I can find anything for you. You look like you'd fit into my size." Maggie told her.

"Ha, well, I'm not sure about that but some clean pants and shirt would be nice. Thank you." Claire said as Maggie started to leave the bathroom.

Smiling, Maggie answered, "Of course, we've all gotta stick together now, and it's not like I don't have enough clothes in my closet."

Claire smiled back as Maggie left the room. Turning to the mirror above the sink, she looked at herself in the mirror, almost not recognizing herself.

Shaking her her head and leaving the stranger in the mirror, she slowly took off the muddy and sweat filled clothes and dropped them to the floor as she stepped into the shower and turned on the water. The cold spray shocked her body, but turned into a lukewarm spray, relaxing her as she stood under the water. Taking her time, she soaped her sore body and occasionally opened her mouth to swallow the water, quenching her thirst.

Thinking this was better than where she was 24 hours ago, Claire smiled to herself and slowly began humming a tune stuck in her head as she closed her eyes and soaked in the peace of the shower while she knew she could.


End file.
